Where my stash money goes

November 06, 2018

I am thrilled to post here that I am hosting a sketch Saturday every second Saturday of the month over on the ATDML blog - Created by ATDML

and before you say - I know today isn't Saturday. I am just giving you the head's up for next Saturday and sharing what I created for October.

The blog is fabulous and full of inspiring ideas from the fab team over there (and still grinning to be back a part of i)

This was my sketch last Saturday and you need to watch for the next one coming out next Saturday. Hopefully, these sketches will inspire you to scrap - even if the connection to the sketch is somewhat lost.

This is the sketch I posted last month

And this is the page created - using the gorgeous Come Away with Me papers from Graphic 45 and available in store here

Life has been quiet but lovely here and whilst it is getting colder it is STILL my favourite time of year ... darker morning (snuggle up in bed time) crisp days (walks on the beach time) and dark evenings (snuggle up in front of the TV) What's not to like?

And Autumn means great sunsets - and there are few places to better them than evening hill. This is a painting I have just finished based on a picture I took last year - not great but I do like elements of it. I used acrylics, a medium I am not comfortable with really - and it shows

September 21, 2018

Retirement has slowed us down - no doubt about it. We rarely make it out before 10 am unless one of us is working - and that's fine, but it does make for shorter days.

Today. by 9.20, we had been up, had breakfast, taken Nigel's car for a service, had a blood test - him not me and just routine - and been to Starbucks. Unheard of. That's a whole day's activities in just that first hour!

Consequently it seems like it has been a long day and we have done a great deal. We started another mammoth jjigsaw, were thrown about time and so had lunch at 11.30 and went to the cinema. Today was A Simple Favour and I am not quite sure what to make of it really. Nigel summed it up by saying 'Mmmm - it wasn't quite sure what it wanted to be was it?' Think Gone Girl, but not as good but that was a comedy. Nope - doesn't make sense does it. Hey ho. The trailer made it look fabulous and there were some good bits, but neither of us were sure what to make of it. Second film this week as we saw Blackkklansman on Wednesday which was a totally different watch.

I have some new scrapping to share today - it was a class page ... well two actually ... I made for ATDML - did I mention I am now a bona fide full on design team member again. I was a DT member for ATDML for several years a long time ago and then work interferred with my scrapping. I was so thrilled to be asked back.

One of my first tasks - which was a pleasure not a task - was to host a class and this is one of the class pages I made. You can find the class here and they sell all of the supplies - Graphic 45 Come Fly With Me here on their blog (along with other classes)

September 09, 2018

There has been so much inspiration in the scrapping world recently. Seriously!

I have more challenges than I can get my head round and it is awesome.

The scrapping community is a very genererous one and the cyber crops and crop days and challenges are fabulous for getting you scrapping.

This weekend I have been playing along with the GoGo Getaway cyber crop. My goodness they have had some fab fab challenges this weekend and I have managed about 5 of the 12 so far.

Here are a couple to share

I still bear the marks of this one - even though I have had a shower my fingers are still blue ... the challenge was stamping. Well, that was all I used - stamps and inks. No other embellishments at all.

The picture is a fake picture but as it was printed I figured I would use it. It is a composite picture I made for an art class (that's why it was printed so I could pint it). The view does not exist in reality.

This challenge was hand stitching so I made some die cut flowers which I handstitched in various ways and even added beads to

and it wouldn't be complete without digital challenges too. The mojo challenges on PBB are fabulous this month - and not just the one I am hosting. The challenge I am hosting is a title challenge to use an Elton Jognsong and this is what I made

and the template challenge even gives you a totally free template to play with and you can find it here and the challenge forum here

April 12, 2018

The news in the media has not been good worldwide today and my heart bleeds for the people suffering so much. There is so much natural suffering int he world that it makes it even harder to stomach when it is man's inhumanity to man that is causing the pain and distress. I pray that the leaders of the countries around the world are given the strength and courage and resolve to make the right decision, whichever way that decision goes.

I felt I needed to share some good news here and so I have decided to start doing sketches and templates and word arts and things for free again.

I will have a freebie to download every month and a sketch to play with every month and may - possibly - even have a class or two as well.

I will aim to do the sketch at the start of the month and the freebie mid-month but those times will be very very flexible as life, even when you are retired, gets in the way at times.

So to kick us off here is a free piece of word art for you to use if you would like to ... There is a PNG and a JPEG

I have made good progress today with my painting of Kira. It is slow going as each bit has hundreds of teeny tiny brush strokes, but it is coming along and eventually, it means I will have a picture of both of them and then the two frames can go up. I felt so guilty painting Fiki and not painting Kira, unable to put his up in case she felt I didn't love her as much. (Yes I KNOW it is wrong to anthropomorphise the cats)

Anyway - this is stage 1 and stage 2 (I think there will be a lot more stages)

I also have new scrapping to share

I don't have many family members in this country but I do have more around the globe in America and Australia and we were blessed to see almost all of my American family at Thanksgiving last year.

This page celebrates that

Today I am thankful for

the weekend being here again

a lovely time painting - slow but steady

celebrating 32 years of married bliss with Nigel ... I am a very lucky lady

December 03, 2017

There is a most definite feeling of Christmas int he air and I love it. Sitting scrapping to my Christmas playlist, all warm and toastie - what could be better.

Actually my Christmas playlist os on no matter where I am ... and if I am not at home I can guarantee the shops will fit the bill too.

I have another project to share that was already on UKS for their Christmas countdown.

It's a very simple gift bag to make for some little last minute gifts.

I made these one year for all of the gift cards we gave. I just stuffed it with tissue paper and popped the card in amongst the scrunched paper. It made a cute way of giving them. But they are also ideal for things like jewellery.

This is the download for the PDF instructions (much easier to just give you the PDF as all the pictures and step by step are right there.

May 11, 2017

I was told today - by a very good friend who knows stuff - that I am truly properly retired.

The reason?

I was due to meet her this morning and an hour after I was due to be there I realised I wasn't there. I didn't even really know what day of the week it was! Having laughed at Nigel for months about how he looks at his on line calendar so much I have now vowed to look at mine regularly - probably several times a day! And yes - the meetingw ith my friend was on there and no, I hadn't looked at it.

Thankfully she is a very good friend and realised that the very efficient head teacher who ran a flourishing school, was on creative design teams and fitted in crafting as well no longer exists. Now there is just me and I float along in a haze of retired bliss. I will do better!

Dot you asked if the writing ont he page was mine or a font - I am afraid it is my handwriting - something else that has slipped a little. I will do better

Today was art and we started watercolour work. NOT my finest hour. I have decided that despite the very expensive set of watercolour paint I bought last week, I don't like water colour. It's hard! And I don't like not having white. I did tell my art teacher I was going to sneak in some white acryllic! However, I will not be beaten - I will persevere and I will do better.

Seems like there is to be a lot of doing better in my future!

I have new scrapping to share today which I made for one of my classes for the recent cyber crop.

All About Me

I am Scrapdolly - frequently answering to just Dolly. I live with my soulmate Nigel, two cats and a Fiki monster and I love to scrap. Scrapping is my creative outlet, my daily therapy, my sanity restorer and where I meet my friends. Come share it with me.